After getting in from the whole ladyboys experience late last night, and staying up until 1 in the end checking and updating things I absolutely zonked out! For probably the first night since arriving I slept well, primarily due to the fact that Chiang Mai is slightly cooler than Bangkok. We had another brilliant breakfast, this time a buffet incorporating traditional Thai food, and also English traditions like eggs and toast.
After breakfast we had the option of using our own bags or a trek bag supplied by the company to carry the essentials for our hill tribe trek. We needed to pack light and forget about the whole "looking good" thing for the trek! I went for the trek bag just to be on the safe side in case of any problems!
We then set out for the forest, first stop the local out of town market to stock up on supplies for the trek. I got some mints and gum, and some weird orange powder to mix with water... I was just following the crowd saying it was good! We then carried on further out of town, and large concrete carriageways some became single lane roads surrounded by open land and stunning scenery. The thing that scared me the most wasn't only the fact that our truck had an open back, but the fact that the cars from behind would drive so close to us from behind before overtaking!
We eventually turned off down to Mae So waterfall (I think that was the name) to go for a quick swim before lunch. I was the brave one who jumped in first, although I couldn't go under the waterfall as the sheer force of the waterfall pushed you away. At over 40m tall, it really made me think of the scale of Angel Falls which is closer to 1000m high! The scenery round this area was amazing too with smooth rocks and a stream in a cut out valley kind of formation.
Shortly after this we had lunch at a local restaurant where we had rice. I soon became known as the eater of the group here as before long I was eating straight out of the big bowl of spare rice! We then continued further up the road, this time getting into denser jungle and gaining height at a rapid rate. Some of the views presented to us as we wound through the mountain road were stunning. After a while we turned off onto a dirt track and shortly after got dropped off in what felt like the middle of nowhere! We were offered a lifejacket at this point but everyone refused!
Our trek then begun and we were soon in dense forest. Our local guide, who seemed to like winding us up made us all hats to wear out of large leaves, and soon later after what felt like up and down the whole way, including many beautiful streams, we reached a peak where we played with a slingshot. Everyone missed, but one of the local guides hit the target twice consecutively! Later into the trek we found a spider which our local guide decided to poke. He thought it was really funny to pretend he had flicked it off his stick. It was amazing to see the spider in defense mode though. We then reached the final leg of trek down a steep dirt track which was hard work on our legs. It made me laugh how the trek was rated as easy, but was in fact a challenge for me compared to many others I have been on.
Upon arrival in the village we were greeted by some young children and as we got deeper in we saw some really cute puppies who kept sucking their poor mum dry of milk! I was expecting to have a large welcome party into the village, but the reality was everyone was leading their everyday lives. People were carrying wood on their backs, preparing rice, building things. It was a very surreal moment seeing a whole community run without things like electricity. It was also nice to see so many young children playing with things like bikes and even hide and seek with us!
After being visited by some locals selling their goods, it was time for dinner which was an amazing locally homecooked meal of Thai green curry, stir fry and the most delicious spring rolls cooked by our main tour guide. Along with all this, we had a cool box full of Chang and other drinks for the evening! After dinner we all sat round the campfire just talking about random things, however the village got cold very quickly, and this along with tiredness amongst us forced us into bed by 9!
Our beds tonight consisted of a simple mattress along with a pillow and blanket, along with a mosquito net to go over our beds. Like always I improvised with my bag as a pillow and used my sleeping bag, and soon after getting in I fell asleep!
No comments:
Post a Comment